Leeds Book Club: Danielle Steelathon VIII

Tuesday, 14 September 2010

Danielle Steelathon VIII - Fine Things pub. 1987

I made this: BookElf at 2:02 pm

This is more like it. I liked this one, which was a bit of a weepy. Its the first 'modern' one I've really enjoyed as well, which is nice.

Bernie Fine is the manager of a large departmnet store in New York. He is sent to San Francisco to open a new store there. Although to him moving to San Fran is purgery, things look up for Bernie when he meets Liz and her daughter Jane, and falls hopelessly in love with both of them. And you know what, it was believeable! Complely saw them as a couple, and a family, and was chuffed. When Liz is diagnosed with cancer after the birth of their son, I was in bits about it. You care about Bernie and his family, and are there with them every step of the way. Yes, the meeting of a new love at the end of the book is slightly predicatable, but it was just so nice. And this book was also, in parts, funny.

One of the main 'comedy' characters is Bernie's mother. Bernie is Reformed Jewish, and like most of Steel's non-WASP characters it apparently doesn't count as racism if you attribute to characters only the stereotypes that you're "aloud" to take the piss out of. So Irish Catholics have loads of children, red hair, and are really warm hearted with a story to tell, and Jewish mothers worry, moan and nag their sons to marry good Jewish girls. This botherd me a little bit, but this was written in 1987, and the book is made better for the inclusion of some light-heartedness amongst the seemingly endless tragedy from about 200 pages in, no matter how distatesful to my PC-lovin' eyes.

So yeah, not bad, not half as good as her historical romances, but again, I could see the attraction in reading another of hers,

Steelathon